Caregrief scale confirmatory factor analysis in a sample of portuguese caregivers

Abstract

There is a great deal of information about caregivers’ suffering, however, there is a lack of scales in Portugal that evaluate this dimension of human behavior. The purpose of this study was to validate and adapt the Caregiver Grief Scale (CGS), developed by Franziska Meichsner, Denise Schinkothe and Gabriele Wilz (2016) for the German population, in order to assess the degree of suffering of caregivers. In order to analyze the psychometric properties of the instrument, we used confirmatory factorial analysis with a sample of 150 caregivers (formal and informal). The results did not confirm the proposal of a 4-factor model (emotional pain, relational loss, absolute loss, and loss acceptance), as proposed by the German study. Subsequently, we used the exploratory factorial analysis that suggested a unifactorial model, which confirmatory factorial analysis showed was more adequate for the study sample, with values of: χ² / df = 2.023; CFI = .970; GIF = .923; RMSEA = .083; AIC = 110,724. In addition, the internal consistency analysis indicated a Cronbach alpha of .936 and the Composite Reliability was .934. It was concluded that the multifactorial structure suggested for German caregivers was not replicated and that for the Portuguese population suffering is a unifactorial construct. It is recommended that future studies, in Portugal, be carried out with a differentiated sample of caregivers.